defrag the hdd

I have a Mac Pro, 1 GB RAM, 2x2GHz CPU.

The problem is that I think the hard drive's contents is very fragmented. Is there a way to defragment it?

i would also like to know. I was able to when i used Windows machines, and im pretty sure there is a way to do it in OS X as well.

OS X defrags on the fly.

There is no need to defragment.

now I am even happier that i switched.

ya, it constantally defrags everytime you use it

My system has 1GB of RAM, 250 GB hdd (50% used). Do I need more RAM? Usually I am browsing (10 browser windows opened).

Does anybody know what is the difference between wired, active and inactive memory? Now for instance I have 10 MB of free memory, 180 MB of wired, 545 active and 285 inactive. Does it look like I need more RAM?

Windows XP also defrags when idle. How can OS X defrag while running apps, or is it also like XP?

I'd never heard of XP defragging when idle... Whenever I went to defrag myself, it needed doing.

i think it does something but not well enough seeing as it still needs it manually.

You're missing the point.

It doesn't need to defrag.

Therefore it doesn't defrag at all.

My saying "it defrags on the fly" was severely layman. It doesn't defrag on the fly so to speak, because it's never "fragged" to begin with.

Got it surfwax Really starting to like these Macs!

My understanding is that it has to do with the way the Mac writes to a journaled filesystem. However, your drive needs to have a fair bit of free space available for this to work properly (I believe the magic number is 25% of your partition has to be kept free).

Also, while OS/X (and any modern Unix-based operating system) will keep your files as fragment-free as possible, the operating system will not optimize your drive. For that you'll need a tool such as Tech Tool Pro (although iDefrag may also support optimization).

IceCreamMan said:

Windows XP also defrags when idle. How can OS X defrag while running apps, or is it also like XP?

Click to expand...

Windows XP does NOT defrag when idle. It INDEXES when idle. All that means is that your files are optimized for when you have to use the Search. Granted, it does a horrible job at indexing, but it does nonetheless. However, Vista has the option for automatic defragging.

If you are noticing slowdowns I recommend downloading a program such as Onyx and firstly start by cleaning out all your caches and logs (you will have to reset a couple of times, also be warned that it will be much slower starting up the first time because the cache enables the Mac to boot up in record time).

Also go into Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility and run that to make sure permissions are okay and the disk is okay.

If you really want to do a defrag then you can do this using Onyx. Apple does not have a built in defrag because it is generally not required.

Besides indexing, it does actually degrag. I was reading an article on it, but I don't have time to google this morning so "Windows XP Professional optimizes the location of boot files and applications when the computer is idle. The optimization occurs in the background and lasts only a minute or two; you might hear the hard disk being accessed when optimization occurs. After the initial optimization takes place, subsequent optimization occurs, at most, every three days."

Taken from: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/c28621675.mspx

There's several articles about this and on Server 2003

Windows XP Professional provides two methods for defragmenting FAT and NTFS volumes:

• The Disk Defragmenter snap-in (Dfrg.msc).

• The new Disk Defragmenter command-line tool (Defrag.exe).

Both tools rearrange files, folders, programs, and unused space on your computer’s hard disk to optimize disk performance.

abc, what makes you think that your disk is fragmented and in need of defrag'ing? It sounds like you have some problem you are trying to solve, and have concluded that defraging is the solution. What is the problem?

Re the memory terms, here are the definitions:

Wired memory
This is memory that applications or the system needs immediate access to, so it can't be cached to disk. It will vary depending on what applications you're using.

Active memory
This is memory that is actively being used.

Inactive memory
This memory is no longer being used and has been cached to disk. It'll remain in RAM until another application needs the space.

Free memory
This memory is not being used.

mac57 said:

abc, what makes you think that your disk is fragmented and in need of defrag'ing? It sounds like you have some problem you are trying to solve, and have concluded that defraging is the solution. What is the problem?

Click to expand...

The problem is that I have 1GB of RAM on a Mac Pro, Xeon 2.0 GHz.

I use 2 browsers (Safari and Firefox) and I keep 6-8 windows opened. Then I read my email with Thunderbird. I also have 3 terminal windows opened. On top of that I use on and off Fetch, TextEdit.

With all these apps running I have 40 MB of RAM free (green) and I don't think it is normal. For instance Safari now is eating up 200 MB of RAM and 1.9 GB of virtual memory and I use 8 windows. To me the swap file is too large.

What do you think?

Maybe apple says OSX defrags on the fly, or something like that. But whenever I check for fragmented files, I find a LOT.
There is a suite of tools called SpeedTools. Part of it is an app called Disk Defrag™. It's small, light, fast, just gets the job done.

And what's this about clearing cache to speed up your system? Caches are mechanisms to speed up your system. Silly
I've used so called system-cleaners... and maybe it's nice to know my system is clean. But the system is actually slower while it builds the caches back up!